Suppose that after a certain course of years he comes to better thoughts-why then, what a store of sorrow has he been heaping up for himself in the irrevocable past! How has he been giving away his best treasure as a free gift to the enemy! How shall he recall the freshness, the elastic impulse with which he set out in life, or become as in the early morning, "when the candle of the LORD shined upon" him?

Our all-gracious LORD receives and blesses penitents. He lays upon them the Hand of His forgiveness, and heals their backslidings, and loves them freely. But the heart of one who so returns is very different from the heart of those who have dwelt in their Father's House. He learns indeed to obey Him, but it is no longer with the spirit of a little child. He has risen again from his great fall, but he bears the marks of it about him. He is haunted by the past. Days and hours of reckless living, and the distinct sins which they have brought with them, rise up before his face; they stand and accuse him; they come like so many dark shadows between him and his peace of mind. His constant thought is, Oh, that I had seen and felt all this before! that some kind voice could have whispered into my ear-youth is flying away, and thou art not yet by thine own act and deed dedicated to GOD. Thou art still among those that know HIM not and obey not His Gospel-wandering further from HIM at every step, and preparing for thyself a rugged path against the day of thy returning!

Such, brethren, (believe me,) are the daily thoughts of many who are older than yourselves, and who now look back to the time when they were as you all are this day. They would give anything to have your present opportunities, to begin over again as you are

now beginning. You wish perhaps to be like them; to be free, and your own masters, and out in the world and they all the while would fain be like you; under training, and with more leisure for the things of their peace, and with no rooted evil habits to pluck out and cast from them.

Oh, that you may take this view of your position! Value the youth which God has given you; and for this, because it is the most acceptable time for seeking HIM. Cultivate the ground of your hearts before they have become hardened by the world. You need never know (if you are as I trust) the misery, the doubtfulness, the painful effort of turning to the LORD our GOD after a youth of careless living. You need not know how sin indulged hampers a man all the way of his return; how slowly he recovers from a seared heart: how dreary a thing it is to have given one's best affections to the things of sense, and then have to tear them off again and strive to train them upward to GOD and the things of Faith; how difficult it is to be a true, consistent penitent; how Satan, if once listened to and obeyed, inflicts wretchedness upon us, even if through grace, we at last escape him-"throws us down and tears" us even when commanded to "depart out of" us. All this you need not know. CHRIST our SAVIOUR calls you to better things; to ways of pleasantness and paths of peace. He offers to free you from yourselves, to draw you nearer to HIM. The Sun of Righteousness will rise upon you with healing in His wings, and will make your hearts as fresh as a morning-time in spring. The HOLY SPIRIT is now ready to descend upon you (O most wonderful mystery!) with His manifold gifts of grace; "the SPIRIT of wisdom and understanding, the SPIRIT of counsel and

ghostly strength, the SPIRIT of knowledge and true godliness," and to fill you with "the SPIRIT of His holy fear, now and for ever."

Yes, if you approach this Holy Ordinance of Confirmation rightly—with repentance for your past neglects, with desire to receive His Blessing, with determination to use the means that will lead you to advanced holiness, with anxious care to believe and to do as your sureties have promised for you, and that by God's help so you will-then, be sure you will carry away a blessing greater than you can now conceive. You will be strengthened by the HOLY GHOST the COMFORTER. And what more can be said than this? Meditate upon it in your chamber and be still.

"Blessed are the undefiled in the way." And "wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to Thy Word."

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see GOD."

Nay, more. You may have unhappily fallen; neglected and forsaken God in your youth; you may find yourselves most imperfect, and be burdened with a sad remembrance of sins. Yet, if you are now with contrition remembering "from whence thou art fallen," and repenting, and doing "the first works"; if you are now, at the third, or the sixth, or the ninth, or even at the eleventh hour, bringing your instruments of labour into His vineyard,-He has still a blessing in store for you. Has He but one blessing, your heavenly FATHER? He will bless you, even you also; for His gracious word is, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."

W. H. A.

SERMON XXVII.

INTERCESSION THE PRIVILEGED DUTY OF

CHRISTIANS.

PHIL. I. 4.

ALWAYS IN EVERY PRAYER OF MINE FOR YOU ALL, MAKING

REQUEST WITH JOY.

THE Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles show how great a stress was laid by the primitive Christian upon the duty of Intercession. For example, St. Paul almost always begins his Epistles with an earnest declaration that he prays for those to whom he addresses them; and he commonly ends with an entreaty that they would, in their turn, pray for him and his companions in the work of the Gospel.

Indeed, so much does intercession enter into the notion of all Christian worship, that it may be said to be its characteristic feature. Even when prayer is at any time spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles, it would seem to be best interpreted as of

intercessory prayer. As when, for instance, St. Paul enjoins the Colossians to "continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving," it would seem that he means prayer for the Church in general; for when his mind glances off from them to himself, he immediately adds, "withal praying also for us,” as though he were passing from their duty of general intercession for the Church, to their particular obligation to intercede for himself.

And indeed one might almost doubt whether prayer in its simpler idea, can well be admitted to form any part of the public service of GOD. The faithful entreat God's mercies, not as individuals, but as members of a common family, interceding one for another, and for the whole body.

The Scriptural authority of the doctrine being so manifest, it might be sufficient, were we at once to illustrate the subject with some explanation of the nature of the duty, and close it with a few exhortations to its due performance. But when we have, whether with a full apprehension or not of the grounds of a doctrine, determined, nevertheless, to obey its plain precepts, as proposed to us in Scripture and by the common voice of the Church; then it is not only safe but most desirable and advantageous to approach, yet more closely, the mysteries of GOD, and to endeavour to obtain a further insight into them. In such a frame of mind we have, with Moses, as it were "taken our shoes from off our feet," and so approaching GoD we may make some endeavour at the elucidation of difficulties, and the unfolding of the whole matter; now we may gratify our yearning for system, aim at reducing what appears confused into order, fix the relation of the 1 Col. iv. 2.